The Bulldog Nation—almost
100,000 strong—was shivering on Saturday. Shivering from the icy winds. Shivering
from the excitement of UGA, beating Alabama, 33-18, and bringing home the
national championship trophy. The 41-year wait to bark with this much joy is
over.
Woof, woof!
Standing before
a nearly packed Sanford Stadium, Coach Kirby Smart said one word defined the
difference between his 2021 team and all others. He told the red-and-black-clad
crowd that the defining word was “connection.” I like that. And when
Georgia whipped Michigan’s Wolverines, you didn’t see Bulldogs doing cartwheels
in the Orange Bowl. Instead, the team’s connectivity and its focus lasered on the
ultimate challenge, the Crimson Tide.
As
members of the 1980 championship team hoisted the 2021 flag over Dooley Field
at Sanford Stadium, another thought of “connection” came to mind. There’s a
common denominator in the 1980 and 2021 national championship teams. It’s a
town, 210 miles south of Athens. One route is down Hwy. 15—through Herschel
Walker and Loran Smith’s hometown of Wrightsville—to Baxley. At the courthouse,
turn left on U.S. 341 and split the pines, 30 miles to Jesup.
What
does that Southeast Georgia community, my hometown, have to do with the
Bulldogs’ winning two national championships? Plenty, if you consider how these
dots from 1980 connect to 2021.
One play in 1980 bought the Dawgs a first-class ticket to the Sugar Bowl. Can you hear Larry Munson, in Jacksonville, gasp and growl, “You gave up … I did, too?” That was after Buck Belue “was in trouble” and put the pigskin into the hands of No. 24, who outran 11 orange-and-blue Gators to the end zone. Not far behind Lindsay Scott was his coach, Vince Dooley, racing down the sideline, on his way to New Orleans.
Without
that “run, Lindsay, run” play, there’d be no 1980 championship flag
flapping over Sanford Stadium. Herschel leapt into the Notre Dame Fighting
Irish’s end zone, but it was Jesup-born Lindsay who raced into UGA’s history
books. Many call it the greatest Bulldog play ever. We should bark our
gratitude for Raymond and Johnnie Mae Scott, whose son, Lindsay, laid down his
trumpet in the ninth grade and laced on a pair of Wayne County Yellow Jackets
football cleats.
Then there’s another
set of Jesup parents, Buddy and Jayne Bennett, whose children are Rick, Jan,
John, William and Stetson III. See where I’m headed? But first, let’s talk
about Buddy, the scrambling quarterback, who led the Jesup Yellow Jackets to a
1954 state championship.
Buddy took his
cleats to Deland, Florida. to play for Stetson University. After his first
season, the school ditched football. Buddy sat out a year with a concussion. From
Jesup, he hitchhiked to the University of South Carolina.
In Columbia, Buddy
was deep on the depth chart. In his senior year—when the starting quarterback
went down—Buddy came off the bench to commandeer his team to win three of its
last four games and lead the Gamecocks in rushing. Sounds familiar, huh?
Buddy died in
2016, but his grandson Stetson Bennett IV proved his granddaddy’s gridiron DNA
was “alive,” as he earned offensive MVP trophies in both the Orange Bowl and
the national championship game. He didn’t win those games by himself, but his
leadership and skills connected with his teammates.
Blackshear
claims Stet IV as its own, but the superstar’s roots—just like Lindsay
Scott’s—are deep in Jesup soil.
Coach Smart is
right. Connection made the difference with his Number 1 team.
And I couldn’t
overlook the “connection” between Jesup and the 1980 and 2021 national
championship Bulldogs.
Woof, woof!
